Dual wheels are commonly used in light duty, commercial duty, medium duty and heavy duty vehicles, including trucks and trailers, to provide greater load bearing capacity and traction. A typical dual wheel assembly comprises a pair of juxtaposed wheel rims mounted coaxially on a common hub, with each rim having a tire fitted thereon.
Wheel assemblies on dual wheel vehicles have been known to seize together from the accumulation of dirt, dust, and moisture, and from corrosion over time as well as from bonding interactions between the wheel assembly components that can occur over time from various forces and loads. The problem of seized or stuck wheel assembly components is especially common in dual wheel vehicles and other heavy duty vehicles.
When faced with the problem of stuck or seized wheel assemblies, mechanics and repair technicians generally resort to the use of a pry bar, hammer, and/or mallet to separate or loosen stuck wheel rims or other components of the wheel. Removing the seized components of dual wheels on vehicles such as heavy duty vehicles can take a significant amount of time as well as dozens of forceful hammer blows to the rotor, and occasionally requires the use of a torch to create temperature differentials across and between the seized parts. Unfortunately such techniques typically impart unevenly applied impact forces, which may deform or damage the wheel assembly components such as the hub, rotor, bearings, axle, etc. Such techniques can also result in injury to the mechanics and repair technicians.
Prior art devices or tools for removing stuck or seized wheel assembly components include Pushing devices or large pulling devices. Such devices attempt to push or pull the stuck components apart by securing the pushing or pulling devices to the wheels or the wheel assembly studs or lugs. Alternate types of dual wheel removing tools are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,709,474; 5,426,841, and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0007400. Such tools and devices are not easy to use, and the forces imparted by these large pulling devices can result in deformation and damage to the studs or lugs and to the wheel assembly. Such damage usually requires replacement of the deformed and damaged parts, which adds further to the labor and maintenance costs. In addition, the cost and size of many such pulling devices or tools make it impractical to use in many repair situations.
Despite their best efforts, the technicians and mechanics often cannot avoid irreparable damage to the wheel assembly components during removal, the costs of which are borne by the vehicle owner. Thus, there is a need for a small, simple and inexpensive means to safely loosen or remove stuck or seized wheel rims from a dual wheel vehicle that is both compact in size and easy to use.
High pressure air bags are known to be used in low insertion height situations where heavy weight is needed to be lifted such as; buildings, bridges, vehicle or structural rescue, load shifting, heavy truck or aircraft recovery and machinery moving to name a few. These high pressure air bags are inserted into the low insertion area in their uninflated state and then they are inflated so as to lift up the heavy object. They have not, heretofore been used to separate wheels from one another.